President, RRM & Associates, LLC

Mr. McNamara had a distinguished forty year career with the Department of Navy culminating in eight years as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) — four years as the Deputy Program Manager for the Virginia Class Submarine and four as Executive Director PEO Submarines.  In 2008 he retired and established RRM & Associates, LLC.

He has more than 22 years in senior program and executive management positions in acquisition and procurement and is a recognized leader in the Navy acquisition community. He is Level III certified in two Acquisition Professional competencies – Program Management, and Research and Systems Engineering. He has been awarded the DOD Small Business Program Manager of the Year in 2002 and holds the distinction of having managed over $1 Billion in successful Small Business Innovative Research [SBIR] transitions to the fleet. As a Legislative Fellow, he worked on Capitol Hill in the United States Senate.

Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) | Program Leader, Small Business Vouchers Pilot at Sandia National Laboratories

David Kistin, of Sandia National Laboratories, is the program lead for the Center for Collaboration and Commercialization (C3), a “front door” to Sandia created to strengthen partnerships, technology transfer and ties to the community. This work focuses on several services created to boost Sandia’s interaction with industry, academia and government entities.

David also serves as the lead for Sandia’s Entrepreneur Exploration (EEx) program, which connects principal investigators with entrepreneurial opportunities and resources provided by a multitude of partners. This program is designed to invigorate an entrepreneurial culture and inspire researchers to either go into the business world or develop that innovative mindset while at the Labs.
David has worked in the entrepreneurial ecosystem his entire career. He joined Sandia from UpSpring Associates, a management consulting firm focused on the design, growth and measurement of mission-driven ventures across New Mexico, throughout the U.S. and around the world. He began his career as the founder of a bioenergy startup based in New Mexico with operations in Mexico and western Canada.

David completed his MBA and his BA at the University of New Mexico, where he focused on Latin American Studies and Political Economy.

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

District Director, New Mexico District

John M. Garcia is the District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) New Mexico District Office. Garcia is responsible for the statewide delivery of SBA programs and services to the 33 counties in the state. He supports business owners in starting and growing their businesses, creating jobs and developing local economies throughout New Mexico. Garcia is both an experienced small business owner and public servant and has earned high acclaim for his achievements as a veteran advocate and small business champion at the city, state and national levels. As past president and owner of Garcia and Associates, a service-disabled veteran owned consulting company, he advised both public and private sector senior leaders in strategic planning, tactical marketing and business development with a special emphasis on veteran wellness and entrepreneurial development.

New Mexico Economic Development Department (NMEDD)

Director, Office of Science and Technology

Myrriah Tomar is the Director of the Office of Science and Technology for the New Mexico Economic Development Department. She completed her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School and her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of New Mexico. Shortly after graduating with her Ph.D., Myrriah worked with the start-up company Safewhite Inc. as an Associate Scientist serving to transition their core technology into a product. She was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship by The Ohio State University for her research on obesity-induced pancreatic cancer.
Prior to her role at the State of New Mexico, Myrriah worked in the office of technology transfer at Rice University evaluating faculty invention disclosures for novelty and commercial potential.

Arrowhead Center at

New Mexico State University (NMSU)

Chief Innovator

Scott Maloney is an executive and multiple division leader with experience in Fortune 500 companies and $1B+ startups.  He is currently the Chief Innovator at Arrowhead Center with the responsibility of moving technologies into industry through partnership negotiations and ventures.

Scott has worked as the CEO and Co-Founder of Seed Worthy, a technology platform for developers that amassed users around the world.  Prior to that he was VP of Strategy and Operations for @Pay, a mobile payment startup where he led the Product, Production, and Creative teams, and provided direct leadership for all strategic initiatives.  Before that, Scott was the Senior Operations and Strategy Manager for LivingSocial, where he was responsible for leadership of several operational and strategic teams, and he was a key driver of growth for one of the company’s fastest growing divisions.  LivingSocial was acquired for a publicly undisclosed amount.  Scott ran R&D finance and planning for Human Genome Sciences prior to their acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline for $3.5B.  Prior to that Scott was finance lead to the Emerging Markets Unit at Pfizer where he provided business development and financial efforts for nearly $400M in partnerships deals and international operations.  Throughout his career Scott has successfully raised significant investment rounds from Angels, VCs, and funds.

Zyn Systems

President

Rick Shindell, president of Zyn Systems, is a long time SBIR and federal technology transfer advocate.  Rick has been providing support and outreach services to the SBIR/STTR community, as well as the technology transfer community through the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) for many years. In 2016, the Small Business Administration (SBA) honored Rick with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his “extraordinary contribution to the SBIR program”.  The Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) awarded Rick a Lifetime Achievement Award for SBIR Advocacy, and in 2006 the SBA presented him with a Tibbetts Award for excellence in SBIR. Rick is the editor of the SBIR Insider newsletter (sbirinsider.com) and an SBIR news and information website at SBIR.TV

New Mexico Procurement Technical Assistance Center (NMPTAC) 

Statewide Program Manager

Therese Rivera graduated from NMSU with a degree in Business Administration & Economics. Immediately following graduation, she began her career at the New Mexico Economic Development Department; she served as the Program Manager of the state’s highest regarded incentive programs, the Job Training Incentive Program for about 17 years until she was promoted to Division Director in 2011.
During her time at the State Economic Development Department, she completed several professional development programs, including the 4-year Economic Development Institute through the University of Oklahoma; completed 4 years of economic development finance through the National Development Council; and completed 1 year of the Institute of Organization Management (IOM) which is conducted by the US Chamber of Commerce.

In February 2019, Therese retired from NMEDD and started as the Statewide Program Manager of NMPTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center), where she oversees the federal grant funded by the Defense Logistics Agency for the purpose of providing free counseling to businesses to assist them in all aspects of government contracting.

President, Cogent Innovations

David Kellner is the President of Cogent Innovations, a high-tech consulting firm based in Santa Fe, NM. David has been the PI or project manager on numerous SBIR projects from agencies including NSF, NIH, EPA, DOD, DOT, and others. He has also provided consulting services on all aspects of SBIR projects, and has aided in securing over $50 million in SBIR funds over the last 7 years.

Supervisory Auditor, Defense Contract Audit Agency

Felicia Gomez is a Supervisory Auditor with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), serving DCAA’s mission out of the Albuquerque Branch Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Felicia has been with DCAA for 5 years.  Prior to serving the Federal Government, Felicia was a public servant with the State of New Mexico.

Managing Director, Ambrosi Donahue Congdon Co. & P.C.

George Moker is Managing Director at Ambrosi Donahue Congdon. His focus is specializing in SBIR/STTR and other government-funded for-profit startup organizations. The firm has a nationwide client base consisting of startup organizations with revenue ranging from $100,000 to $15 million, with funding from various government agencies. George has more than 30 years of experience in public accounting, focusing on the area of startup and small organizations.

Manager, Strategic Partnerships and Communication, NASA/JSC

Since 2012, Yolanda Marshall has supported the partnerships initiatives at Johnson Space Center.  Responsible for the development of strategies for partnerships that aligns with the center’s focus:  advancement of technology needs through collaboration, the transfer of technology from NASA to industry/academia and from industry/academia to NASA, and build sustainable relationships for the future.  Utilizing business experience from such companies as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).  Recognizing the potential of mutual beneficial collaboration has proven beneficial to JSC and NASA.

Within the period of strategic partnerships, JSC maintains a long-standing relationship with BAHEP and improved relationships with Houston organizations (e.g. HoustonFirst) as evident in the initiation of SpaceCom event to bring various industries together to network and develop partnerships.  Today, JSC has entered into agreements with the academia, medical industry, energy and oil and gas industry, transportation, and consortiums (e.g., Houston Technology Center and the Technology Collaboration Center.)

PTAC Advisor, New Mexico Procurement Technical Assistance Center

Elythia McAnarney is a government contracting expert with greater than 25 years of hands-on experience in “Cradle to grave” contract and Subcontract administration of government and commercial contracts. Expert on Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFAR) requirements. Managed Multi-million dollar contracts for DoD, DoE, NASA and GSA. Solicited, negotiated, awarded and managed subcontracts including Terms and Conditions and government flow-downs. Prepared cost and the business volumes for major government solicitations.

President & CEO, Goodman Technologies LLC

Dr. Bill Goodman is a Technologist, Entrepreneur and a Master Results Coach. He has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA and has worked in Space, Defense and Aerospace his entire career; he has more than 90 publications and his technologies have flown on 4 different space missions. He has authored 48 winning SBIR/STTR grants (Phases I-III) for companies he has worked for, companies he has owned, or for companies that he coaches.  He is the recipient of 2017 – 2019 New Mexico Small Business Assistance Grants, and was selected for the 2018 TechConnect World Innovation Exposition.  Bill is a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), a Partner in Vista Business Group, a nationwide M&A and investment group for the middle market, and Vice President of ScorpioV a New Space Company. He is the President & CEO of Goodman Technologies LLC, a New Space Company, making 3D/AM and Advanced Materials for the most demanding and extreme environments.  GT was started a week after being laid off and 30 days after discovering my son required heart surgery.

President, Independent Platform

Since 2006, Dan Suhr has been instrumental in securing and performing SBIR Phase I and II grants from the NIH, NSF, and USDA for employers (inXsol) and clients.

In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Dan is a proposal/plan writing workshop instructor, Coach of startup clients, and moderator of topic-specific workshops. Dan specializes in addressing: Innovation Research, Partner Search, Research/Work Plans, Strategic Alliances, Roadmaps, Finance/Forecast, and Project Evaluation.

Founder & CEO, Metis Technology Solutions, Inc.

Dr. Joy Colucci is the founder and CEO of Metis Technology Solutions, Inc. headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Metis began operations in 2011, and currently employs over 100 systems engineers, software engineers and subject matter experts providing aeronautics and space systems development expertise to NASA and the US Air Force. Metis supports several high-visibility programs, including NASA spaceflight missions for lunar exploration, small satellite swarm development and International Space Station (ISS) utilization. The company also has extensive experience in modeling and simulation for aeronautics research, as well as satellite ground system development and sustaining engineering. Metis augments it’s service business with a robust SBIR-funded IRAD program. They have been awarded NASA SBIRs through Phase 3 and were awarded their first Air Force SBIR at the inaugural “Pitch Day” event in New York City earlier this year.